时事资讯:白宫委任特别检察官调查中情局虐囚

【英文原文】

New Probe Of CIA's Methods

The Justice Department on Monday appointed a special prosecutor to investigate alleged CIA mistreatment of terror suspects, a move representing a sharp break from the president's early determination to move beyond Bush-era controversies.

Attorney General Eric Holder named longtime Connecticut prosecutor John Durham to lead the investigation.

Mr. Durham is already examining the destruction of 92 videotapes that recorded certain Central Intelligence Agency interrogations of detainees, part of an investigation launched in early 2008 under the Bush administration. He will now also be probing whether CIA officers or contractors broke any laws with their use of harsh tactics.

President Barack Obama will also establish an elite unit to interrogate high-value detainees, creating a team of trained interrogators drawn from law enforcement, intelligence and military agencies.

The announcements came as the Justice Department released a heavily redacted report from the CIA's inspector general, as well as several hundred pages of additional documents on the CIA's interrogation program.

The 2004 report detailed fresh instances of alleged abuse. It says one interrogator threatened to kill the children of one 9/11 suspect, while another threatened a detainee's mother. Other interrogators held a power drill to a prisoner's head, while others temporarily choked off the flow of blood to the brain before another detainee was revived.

CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a memo to agency employees Monday that the allegations in the report are 'in many ways an old story.' He said past Justice Department probes of the material were exhaustive.

CIA and Justice Department lawyers met prior to the decision, and Mr. Panetta spoke with Mr. Holder Monday, said one official familiar with the matter.

Mr. Durham, a career federal prosecutor in Connecticut since 1982, is highly regarded in the Justice Department. In 1999, Clinton administration Attorney General Janet Reno appointed him to lead a special team that investigated alleged criminal misconduct by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and other law-enforcement corruption in Boston.

Even before the announcement of the new inquiry, the White House sought to distance itself from the politically fraught decision. 'The president thinks that Eric Holder, who he appointed as a very independent attorney general, should make those decisions,' said White House spokesman Bill Burton.